vassey50

Here’s another project I did summer of 2007. I changed out some of my car lights to white LEDs. These came from ITech Leds on eBay, I think they operate out of Texas. Anyway here is the bulbs and bulb numbers that I changed out:

Courtesy Light Driver Door / Front Passenger Door - #194 x 2
Dome Light - #DE3175 x 1
License Plate Light - #2825 x 2

Now I thought the map lights (the one just over the shift **** in front) were 194’s as well b/c that’s what the Sylvania replacement site advised, but it was not. It was actually a Festoon bulb #211-2. Just so you don’t make the mistake I did when you order. And the dome light I ordered while still being good in color wasn’t bright enough to illuminate the interior nearly as much as the regular stock bulb.

The #194’s had 9 leds and I think the dome had 6 leds. You can get them with more or less, depending on the output you’re looking for. So I’m going to order a new one for the Dome. I guess now they have what’s called SMT (Surface Mount) Leds that use chip technology, basically brighter lights. I’m no expert. Either way, I’ll try them next.

Anyway, here’s some pics of the install and results. Sorry I forgot to snap photos of the door lights installed, if anybody is really curious about how they look, reply and I’ll snap them off. Sorry for the blurry pics too, if I spent less money on the car I’d be able to get a better digital cam to document my baby. Enjoy.

Here’s the door light stock bulb.



Now here’s some useful info for anybody wanting to do this mod. DO NOT do like me and decide to unnecessarily rip open the trunk lid liner to access the license lights Instead, simply go to the exterior lights on the trunk and you’ll see two plastic fasteners, one on each light. Push it in gently with a screwdriver or pen and you have instant access to the bulbs. I love Toyota / Lexus vehicles, it just made sense. After the fact to me mind you



LEDs in.



Side by side for comparison.


Again if you’re extremely careful like I am around the car, you won’t have to worry about breaking tabs on the plastic light covers or scratching anything.



And some pics of the license plate at night. As soon as it was dark and went out to see how they looked and I loved them. Really neat looking, no silly red or green colors, just a nice white light to match up with the xenon headlights up front. My point always to keep the car appearing classy, and not stupid, basically.







At the moment I am ready to buy my new Map light and some other #194’s for the cargo lights and a #37 for the glove box light. I’ll have them in for spring so I’ll post some pics then for you guys. Again, tell me your thoughts on the mod and if you’ve done it as well.

Cheers,
V

Maxx941

iTrader: (1)

LED lights always look nice. I had some done on my previous car.
Best brand that I came across were the PIAA LED. Super Bright and none of the Diodes died after long use. Some of the ebay brands didn't do so well after a few months. I tried about 3 different types with various # of LEDs in them.

Sash

Within the first month of getting my ES I changed out all the stock bulbs to LEDs aswell

Real clean look

happy_es3

yeap first mod i did to my car when i got it this summer the dome makes such a difference

Lexusfreak

Nicely done!

swifty562

did i mention all my lights are LED? except for the break lights? LOL

LEX ES300

Hi Vassey50,

WOW,

Great write up with Pics! Excellent work.

Slightly off the topic, can I ask you about your tail lights? - I have the same ones. In your pictures your red boot lid tails look really bright. It might just be the picture but are they hooked up to your brake lights also? (ie when you step on the brake they light up brighter too, or are they just 'on' when you have your headlights on) The reason I ask is that I want mine to all light up when I step on the brake, but the globe for the bootlid lights are only a small 5w single filament t10 bulb, and i cant put any other type of bulb in mine so it wont act as a brake light. - I asked my auto electrician.

Just wondering!

Cheers,

LEX ES 300

ns3425

hey for that dome light is it a 31mm or 41mm cuz i wanna get the same thing. blue leds fro the back dome. also can u please take a pic of it with the dome light on i wanna see waht it looks like cuz i have the same exact car as u.

swifty562

its 31mm.

remember, map light is not the same type of bulb

lexusnb

Looks good vassey, hey you wouldn't happen to have the ebay link would you. I tried searching for them but couldn't find them. I want to get some for my wifes 00 ES.

Thanks,
Kurt

ns3425

hey Vassey can u put some pics up as soon as possioble i wanna see how it looks so i know if i should get them or not.

Rollin'ES3

Looks clean. Everytime I see a pic of your ES it reminds me of mine. Very nice

97-SC300

iTrader: (17)

Great work. Looks much better now.

ns3425

hey i just bought 4led fro my rear dome i cant wait till it comes.

vassey50

...the bright brake lights you see are simply from the exposure of the camera, i had to allow a long shutter speed to get a decent picture of the lights, as best i could from a point and shoot digital camera anyway.

I'll try and get one taken on the weekend, like i mentioned previously, the dome light i put in wasn't very bright on the interior. if you were to order a dome light i would get one that has as many leds in the actual bulb as possible. This may be true for the dome but not the courtesy lights.

...not sure if am allowed to put ebay links on here, but if you do a seller search for iTechleds, you'll find them. or simply search for "194 led white" and you'll get them and a few other reputable dealers.

if it's a 4-LED dome, you might not like the light output, the color will be nice, but it might be a little darker the your stock bulb, send some pics up.

V